“Please don’t let them put me in a box.”
Elayne Sallemi wrote that line into her will at 27, years before she ever became a death doula. This conversation is about what she means by it, and what it actually means to practice as a green witch — not spells or ceremony, but a call back to nature, honoring earth, air, water, and fire the way her ancestors did for thousands of years.
What Being a Green Witch Actually Means
The practice centers on a four-element altar — light, plant, stone, water — and on tending death the way an herbalist tends illness: with plants, ritual, and attention, not machines and paperwork. It isn't a costume or an aesthetic. It's a living, ancestral practice.
The Strega Lineage
Elayne traces it to the strega — a word that simply means "the woman who knew things." Her family's herbal knowledge passed grandmother to granddaughter in the kitchen, and she's clear that you don't need Italian heritage or a bloodline to practice what resonates with you. Her full piece on the Stregheria tradition goes deeper into where this comes from.
What Is in a Green Witch’s Apothecary Bag
Lavender, salt, rosemary, rose petals, and willow bark — carried into the dying space and used with intention, not decoration. The fuller piece on deathbed herbalism covers the history and the reasoning behind specific plants.
Why Mirrors Get Covered
Elayne covers mirrors in a room where someone is dying so a soul doesn't get "stuck." It's one piece of setting up a room for transition — alongside the herbs, the altar, and the quiet.
What a Full Green Burial Actually Looks Like
Washing the body in salt and herbs. A wicker basket or a tree pod instead of a sealed casket. A communal feast afterward for the departed and their ancestors. The complete guide to green burial walks through the practical side — cost, legality, and how it compares to cremation.
Where to Learn the Full Practice
Elayne teaches these exact rituals in full in her course, Plants at the Deathbed, and in a live seasonal series, The Green Witch at the Threshold. Read more about her practice here.
